Dust control

[cowman]

In the municipality I live in the county will lay down dust control in front of your gate for about $300. They use calcium chloride I believe. It used to be oil and then it cost you $1800.
I never have bothered as I live way back from the road but I can sure understand why some people need it.
Anyway my neighbor had it done this spring. By fall it was getting fairly beat up from all the heavy traffic, but the real kicker came when they moved a rig last week when the roads were still soft! Literally chewed it to pieces!
He phoned the county and was told they only guarantee it for three months! He argued it would have been okay if they had kept the darned rig off the roads until it dried up! Apparently the county guy gave him a little lecture about how much money the oil companies were putting into the coffers and how he was benifitting! He then called his councillor and got a song and dance and the grader came out and smoothed out the rough spots!
Now in reality is this fair? Someone destroys something you pay for...shouldn't they compensate you? If the county is getting so much money from the oil companies shouldn't they have restored my neighbors road? Maybe they need to charge the oil companies enough to repair any damages they do?

[charliep]

cowman, the roads belong to the county, eg: all taxpayers. When an individual pays for dust control it does not mean they own that section of the road and can control who drives on it. The dust control is expected to last for one season, and mid October is stretching the season somewhat.
I would have expected the county to grade the rough spots out of the road and not give the ratepayer any lecture, and perhaps I would have expected them to request funds from the rig company to be put aside for dust controlling that spot next spring.

[cakadu]

My question is if the county gets so much money from an oil company as a bond for the road, then shouldn't that money ostensibly be put to maintaining/repairing the road should something happen to it?

With all the drilling activity, the roads should be in pretty decent shape instead of the mess that some of them are in.

In the last week alone, there have been about 4 rigs moved in our area. Don't think we'll see too much in the way of the roads being smoothed out.

[cowman]

Well Linda, I guess the little lecture my neighbor got pretty well tells it how it is? Obviously the county likes the extra money rolling in...but where is it going?
Well for starters they have to pay off their screwup at Springbrook where they recently announced $11 million to upgrade the water and sewer? They got shafted on the one by the feds...no one was minding the store!
Then there is the escalating costs of operating like a bunch of drunken sailors on shore leave? A good example of that is three councillors and two county employees are going to Europe to investigate bio digesters! Hello....your ag fieldman is in the process of building one? Maybe they could have asked him?
Hope they find the five star hotels and gourmet dining refreshing!
A total waste of money...now mind you the feds are partly funding this little adventure!
I wonder what the breakdown is in costs for the municipality? How much money comes in from the oil activity and how much is being spent on actual maitenance of the roads? If the money is so lucrative how come our taxes went up this year, when every quarter practically has a well site? I wonder how much of a raise county councillors will vote themselves this year?

[cowman]

cowman, I hear that your council is considering drafting a bylaw to see your county Reeve elected by the people next election. That happened here in this county, it got rid of the vermin that was the reeve but council costs are going through the roof. Everytime there is a conference, not only do a couple of councillors go but the Reeve tags along as well. His pay per conference day is around $385.00.
He was on council for years then took six years off before running for Reeve. He is a fence sitter, nice guy but easily led by the nose by the urban center that always has their hand in the county's pocket. Believe me if your county goes to an elected mayor you will be paying a lot more for council unless they drastically cut down the number of divisions. I liked Stan Bell's analagy, he said that the county could go with 3 divisions if they had the right people elected to get the job done.

[cakadu]

Cowman, I am at a loss to understand why this baby entourage has to go to Europe at this point in time, particularly when the County has been looking at the viability and feasibility of bio-digesters for almost 3 years now. The Ag Fieldman was just here in April and there is currently a study being undertaken about going to the next steps. Not exactly the best use of our tax dollars.

As far as the elected Reeve goes, the current Reeve was quoted as saying that they won't make a move until the people had been consulted. Well, I thought we gave our views last October when the vote was in favor of an elected Reeve.

Emrald, why should it cost more to have an elected Reeve versus a council appointed one? If the Reeve is in there at a salary and have a full-time job, then wouldn't that person's attendance at meetings be part of the job and not an additional expense? Travel expenses are one thing, but getting paid to attend a conference is another matter entirely.

I also very much believe that if councillors are going to all of these meetings all over the globe, then they need to come back and be accountable to the taxpayers for their attendance.

For those who attend conferences on behalf of the employer and/or a volunteer group it is expected that the person will come back and give a report on what was learned and how it could be applied to the organization. What makes a council any different? They are going on public dollars, so it should at least have some relevance to what council is doing.

[cakadu]

How many of your councillors would know a darn thing about a biodigester ? I would suggest that sending the ag fieldman and one councillor or even one other member of staff with a technical background would suffice. Municipalities such as the County of Beaver have been involved in a biodigester and I am sure your county could learn a lot from travelling up to Ryley vs having to trek across the globe !!!
Linda the elected Reeve does NOT represent a division, so they are elected in addition to divisional representatives.

For instance our council was five elected officials and the reeve was selected amongst them. We now have 6 elected councillors and an elected Reeve. You always need an odd number so as not to have tie votes as they are thrown out.

It will cost more for an elected reeve you can count on it. If your county has been having problems with having too much politics involved in the selection of reeve then you do need to look at an elected position, but it will cost more unless you reduce the number of divisions.

I don't buy the theory that you need to have more divisions as your municipality grows in population.

[cowman]

They say they need to go in case they need to do something with all the garbage in the county! Apparently the city of Red Deer is getting sick of taking all the county garbage and are going to cut them off! So they claim they need to go to Germany and Austria to check it out.
I guess no one told them the local MP spent all of last summer touring bio digesters at garbage dumps in Germany?
Their own fieldman is now in the testing of feedstocks stage...and has lined up some investors! It looks like construction will probably start in 2006!
It sure is good we have these conscienteous councillors willing to sacrifice themselves on a little two week adventure and come back all informed? I guess they never realized their employee has already done all the leg work? And we wonder why people think all politicians are crooks?
Emerald: The people voted on whether they wanted a reeve? I would say that should be the end of the story...its called democracy?
I think it might be a good thing? Get an outsider in there who can stir the pot and ask the tough questions. As it is now the CAO pretty well tells the council how its going to be! I would sure vote for a candidate who would guarantee a reduction in spending and taxes!
The old boys are dithering about whether they should allow an elected reeve. Mainly because they fear some of their wasteful ways might come to light and the gravy train might become thinner!

[cakadu]

There are at least 2 biodigesters in this province that are working and one of them the IMUS has just one an innovation award, so I think that there would be plenty to see and learn about right here at home.

I understand about the elected reeve not having a division so would need to pretty much be a full-time representative for the county. I also get that there needs to be an odd number on the council so as to avoid tie votes. I believe that having an elected reeve would shake things up and that is what we need in the county. There isn't enough accountability out there and there needs to be - in a great many areas.

I'd be curious to hear about your thoughts on the divisions not growing as a county/municipality grows emrald. I'm sure there is some wisdom there and I would like to hear it as it might help to shed some light on things as they happen here.

[cowman]

Linda: Some if not most of the councillors have been up to see the bio-digestor at Highland feeders which is state of the art for animal waste? This little European adventure is nothing more than a free vacation...without a doubt.
The people voted for an elected reeve because I believe they are getting sick of the blatant waste in the county and they want something done about it? Major screwups like Springbrook, the "Tajmahal", the winter gravelling program, the Bill Meyers affair, the complete bungling of building roads several times, the mess in Gasoline alley, the bloated beuracracy...and on and on it goes!
Hopefully we would elect a full time reeve who would get the county back to reality and run it like a business rather than a private old boys club? To do that we need an outsider...not one of the old boys club?

[madcow]

I see there is a national trend here for municipal government idiocy,way to go Canada!I have an abandoned house at each end of my farm and one on a half acre lot in the middle,next to my house. I've been after the county to either get the derelict owners to maintain their property or lower my taxes. No results. BUT. A moose passes through my fence and tears the wire off six posts Oct 3rd,I have 12 cows on the road( I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere) and I get served with papers to appear in Provincial court Oct 31 on charges of violating the county's 'animals and fowl at large by-laws'. I really love those people........NOT !

[kpb]

The county council that rules my part of Alberta is pretty much the same type you'd get if you lived in any backcountry American region. They pretty much do what they want, give what they can to their friends, conduct a lot of their meetings behind closed doors and generally act like a rural council from the Deep South. We should start calling our reeve Big Daddy or, maybe, Bubba.

The latest fiasco was to summarily fire our long-serving commissioner at a cost of over $250,000 in severance. Because this wasn't handled properly, the taxpayers are on the hook for a huge chunk of cash.

Before Emerald starts talking about grassroots democracy here and turfing the scoundrels through voting them out, I would point out that most of the voters in this county voted against the expensive building of a new county building a few years ago but the council went ahead and built it anyways. Most of that council was turfed at the next election but the new bunch have about the same level of integrity and maybe slightly less competence than the old.

County councils in Alberta have always been all about getting your friends' driveways gravelled and giving subdivision approval to your real buddies. Sometimes I think that Alberta, from the provincial government down to the good old boys running the local counties, would be more comfortable in the southern U.S. than in Canada.


kpb

[cowman]

Well kpb that's politics! It's a dirty business at the best of times and it sure brings to mind the old saying " It's not what you know but who you know"!
Now I will say that my own councillor does her best to take care of her constituents, but like anything else she has to go along to get along! I guess that is why she has been a councillor for 16 years. It can be a pretty tricky balancing act?
I assume you are in Mountain View county? If you are, apparently the blood letting isn't over quite yet! More people are going down the road or so I heard from your Ag fieldman!

[cowman]

An elected reeve has absolutely no power on his or her own. They chair council meetings, act as a spokesperson for the county on matters of council if council so wishes but that is it. Don't get hung up on the idea that an elected reeve can change things, they only can do that if the majority of council agrees.
I know about the new county building that was referred to. I also know that some members of councils seem to feel they are elected to 'run' the county. That is incorrect. Council is there to develop policy, make decisions with regard to budgets etc. Once the budget is passed county administration is responsible for carrying out the terms of the budget and staying within that budget. Councillor as also expected to make decisions on planning matters, serve on various committees and Boards of council etc.
Councillors have no powers with regard to directing staff and an find themselves on the wrong side of the Municipal Government Act if they try and do so.

Councillors are supposed to base their decision making on the overall good of the county, not their respective divisions. An Elected Reeve is never supposed to consider his own area, but base all actions and decisions on the municipality as a whole. In our community the elected Reeve is being seen as a member of TOWN council vs county as he seems to be on the side of the town whenever there is a disagreement over cost sharing.
You don't have to look far to see where council gets the notion they don't have to listen to the people, just take a look at our own government. They pick and choose how they wish to CONSULT with the public, then put their own spin on the results of the consultations !!!

[kpb]

cowman, yes I live in Mountainview and am not surprised to hear that the firing has yet to be finished. I agree with both you and Emerald that the petty politics, friend-favoring and questionable decisions seem to pervade every level of government. I guess, in some ways, it seems worse at the municipal level because it is easy to see how some people are favored when they request subdivision approval and others are declined based, as you said cowman, on who you know and how much you smooze them.

I'm afraid that our local politicians are not responsive to their voters and are basically acting in their own self interest. It's no wonder people give up on voting.

kpb